Fall TV Preview: The Non-Hit Hits

Even though on-demand options and streaming services have rendered the premiere dates of TV shows irrelevant, New Fall TV Season is still a thing. While 2016 has not been a great year for movies thus far, TV is having a banner year. With dozens of brand new series hitting the airwaves over the next few weeks, CTBoom has you covered with previews of the shows you should keep your eyes peeled for both to binge and to avoid.

To kick off the series, let’s take a look at the crop of shows most likely to survive Reaping Day aka the first half of the Fall TV season.

The Non-Hit Hits

These are shows that will probably be absolutely huge despite you not knowing anyone who watches them.

Kevin Can Wait (CBS, premieres September 19th)

I have seen zero episodes of King of Queens, I haven’t seen either Paul Blart movies, and I missed The Zookeeper. I have no frame of reference here, but if I were to guess, I would say that Kevin Can Wait is right in line with these other monster hits. The sitcom built for syndication model works every time – out of shape working class guy is married to someone too pretty to be his wife and has a few kids who are leading lives that completely mystify him. Somehow things all work out, he never makes it to the gym, there are some hair-brained schemes involved, and the bills always get paid. Such formulas have produced The King of Queens, The Flintstones, Married to Jim, Married with Children, Everybody Loves Raymond, and a million other shows. This will be on forever.

Man With A Plan (CBS, premieres October 24th)

Ditto to the above. This is the exact same premise but with one of the Friends instead of one of Adam Sandler’s friends. CBS needs another hit, is going to get it with this, and doesn’t need to stray from the formula. This too will be on forever.

How ‘bout the LeBlanc-assaince, huh?! A premium cable series in Episodes, taking over Top Gear, and now a CBS sitcom cash machine?! You can keep your cable anthology series, Ross… Joey reigns supreme now.

Timeless (NBC, premieres October 3rd)

Ok – this looks unnecessarily complicated and not complicated enough at the exact same time. Maybe I’m getting old and maybe I’m stuck in my ways, but I like my time travel with plucky, relatable Canadians and human cartoons in lab coats. I like my time machines to made out of luxury cars, and I like to know that my bad guys are actually bad. Am I crazy or did this preview make it look like the bad guy was trying to prevent the Hindenburg from crashing? So this show is about a covert group of scientist/historian/army ranger/tech guys who have to travel through time every week to make sure terrible things happen?

While over complicated shows on the big four networks seldom survive the first season, I will preface your dismissal of Timeless with this – Grimm, a show about a detective that fights monsters from fairytales has been on for six seasons, Once Upon a Time, a show about fairytale characters living in Maine has also been on for six seasons, and Supernatural, a show about two brothers who drive around in a muscle car and fight monsters has been on for 11 years. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is one of the greatest shows of all time. Stranger Things just lit the entertainment world on fire. People don’t need their shows to be tethered to reality in order in order to enjoy them. Timeless is either going to be straight garbage or it’s going to be on until your middle-schooler go to college despite you never sitting down to watch an episode on purpose.

Honorable Mentions

McGyver – a reboot the of classic series24: Legacy – a sequel to the classic seriesDesignated Survivor – Kiefer Sutherland but not as Jack Bauer becomes President for the worst reasons possibleThe Blacklist: Redemption – a spinoff of NBC’s The Blacklist which officially makes NBC the network of spinoff only content.Pure Genius – A genius decides to hack incurable diseases. TWIST: HE HAS AN INCURABLE DISEASE!

Coming later this week, we’ll take a look at the return to TV of Joel McHale, a series based on Dr. Phil’s early days, and more reboots than you can handle.